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Black widow nebula seen crawling through space

The Black Widow Nebula is a cloud of dust, gas and stars about 10,000 light years from Earth

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/E Churchwell/GLIMPSE)

A giant “black widow” is lurking in the Milky Way, spawning young and zapping its surroundings with intense radiation.

Hanging just above the galactic plane, the Black Widow Nebula is a cloud of dust, gas and stars about 10,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is nearly invisible at optical wavelengths – hidden behind a web of dust spun from the galaxy’s disc.

But NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope used its Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) to peer through the haze. It has captured wispy streams of dust, flowing like spider’s legs from the centre of the nebula, where massive young stars are forming.

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These enfants terribles are actually spewing out radiation and particles to create “two bubbles that are moving away from each other in opposite directions,” says Ed Churchwell, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, who led the observations. “They are basically destroying their natal material.”

The image of the Black Widow Nebula was captured by the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project.